Apparatus for installing and displaying exterior decorative lighting on and around building roof structures has been the subject of some earlier patents. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,851,977 and 4,905,131 for Brackets For Decorative Lighting are examples. Both of these patents disclose a base member for insertion between adjacent or overlapping layers of building material, such as roofing shingles or decking, and a bracket, attached to or integral with the base member, which supports the base socket or bulb portion of an incandescent light.
While the basic purpose of the present invention is somewhat similar to that of the stated prior art, the article of the present invention constitutes an improvement in several areas. First, the prior art devices provide no means for conveniently attaching a string of lights to a roof's edge where a typical rain gutter is installed. To do so would bury the lighting in the rain gutter. Second, installing each light bulb into a bracket by extracting the bulb from its socket, inserting the bulb or socket into the aperture in the bracket and then reinstalling the bulb in the socket is laborious and time consuming. Third, the use of the bulbs themselves as means for mounting multiplies the risk of breaking the bulbs during installation.
It is therefore the primary object of the present invention to provide a decorative light string hanger device which can be inserted between layers of roofing material or, with other structural constraints, mounted directly to the outside perimetrical edge of a rain gutter.
A second object of the invention is to provide a decorative light string holder which supports the light string by griping the insulated electrical conductors therein rather than to directly attach to the light bulbs or bulb sockets in the string.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a unitary light string mounting structure which is inexpensive to manufacture and easy to install and which will provide maximum safety.
Other and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon a reading of the following detailed description of a preferred form of the invention, taken in conjunction with the attached drawings.